Yes, on May 24!  After years of planning to ensure our investment in the future of the hospital campus aligns with the future of healthcare in our community and Vermont, NMC is on track to break ground for our Master Facility Plan projects on Tuesday, May 24.  We hope all of you will join us on the front lawn of the hospital at 5 pm for this historic occasion! The support for this effort has been strong and consistent at our various community presentations and discussions relating to the projects.  That spirit of building a better future will serve us well as we move through the actual construction.

As I’ve described, this enhancement to our healing environment brings a conversion to all-private inpatient rooms; centralization of registration for greater efficiency; efficient flexible space for Cardiology, Pulmonology, OB/GYN, and Medical Specialty Clinics; and an attached medical office building to enhance access and efficiency in Primary Care, Urgent Care, and Orthopaedics – complete with an embedded x-ray service and outpatient blood draw (phlebotomy) service.  For more information on our projects and the progress of construction, please visit our website at: https://www.northwesternmedicalcenter.org/about-nmc/who-we-are/construction-updates/

In doing so, these projects advance our ability to care for our inpatients while strengthening our outpatient services with an emphasis on access, flexibility, and efficiency.  These key characteristics are vital for the evolving future of healthcare.  More and more services will be done on an outpatient basis – but there will continue to be a need for high quality, exceptional inpatient care.  With our community’s aging demographic, access will continue to be of prime importance. Flexibility and efficiency are at the crucial to our efforts to help bend the cost curve within healthcare.

Implementing projects of this size on a busy hospital campus will take careful construction coordination.  Our team has been working closely with Morris Switzer Environments for Health, Cross Consulting Engineers, PC Construction, and other partners to create an implementation plan which reduces disruption, contains costs, and moves us as rapidly as possible to the occupancy of these wonderful new spaces.  Later in May, you will see the creation of the “lay down” area and the construction of an employee parking lot just south of the Northwestern Counseling & Support Services Building.  We also anticipate that the site work to move Crest Road away from the back of the hospital to allow for the expansion of our Medical/Surgical Unit will begin in May.  These initial efforts will be followed by the work on the new private patient rooms and then work will begin at the front of the campus on the lobby, registration, medical clinic space, and medical office building.  On our construction update website, you will find a video of NMC Facilities Director Tyson Moulton talking through the phasing, staging, and timing of the project.  It has already been viewed more than 300 times as we begin to build awareness of our path to this exceptional future.  If you would like to know more of the details, please take a moment and watch that video online.

As construction moves forward, you will see communication from us in many forms.  Our construction update website will be a key source of up-to-date information.  At key times in the project, we will also update you through coverage in the media, our Insights community newsletter, this column in the newspaper, our HealthBeat show of Northwest Access Television, our social media outlets (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram).  Departments and practices will be helping inform patients of changes prior to their arrival on campus.  Naturally, there will be construction signage helping you find your way as you come to NMC and expanded volunteer support and update wayfinding inside the facility to guide you to your destination. 

It is so exciting to be at the cusp of this exciting effort to advance care in our community and enhance our healing environment.  Thank you again for your support of local healthcare and I hope to see many of you at the ceremonial groundbreaking on May 24!

— Jill Berry Bowen, NMC’s Chief Executive Officer